Of the many UFO incidents that have fascinated ufologists over the past decades, the 1942 incident in the United States is especially notable. The US Army opened fire on targets believed to be Japanese military aircraft. In the end, it turned out that it was something completely different, and this event is now known as the Battle of Los Angeles.
The incident took place on February 24, 1942. Then, the US Navy noticed several luminous objects in the sky around Los Angeles. In the evening, anti-aircraft alarms were announced and anti-aircraft gun positions were prepared. For several hours it seemed like a false alarm, but at 2:15 am, an unidentified object was detected on the radars. The alarm was canceled only at 7:21, but what happened next went down in history as one of the most interesting phenomena associated with unidentified flying objects.
As soon as the sirens turned on, and in a moment the headlights scanned the sky. In parallel, an order was issued for the anti-aircraft artillery to open fire. In addition, the aircraft was put on hold, but the fighters remained on the ground. Civilians were sent into hiding, awaiting an air raid that ultimately did not occur. However, a luminous object was observed in the sky, which today is described by many as a UFO object.
Records from that period suggest that both the people who lived at the time and the army officers did not know what they were shooting at. According to the available data, the luminous object (or objects) were constantly bombarded from the ground. The vehicles flew over the coast from Santa Monica to Long Beach. When they reached Signal Hill, they began to maneuver - first turning towards the ground and then turning back towards the Pacific Ocean, where they eventually disappeared.
Hours after the raid, Fleet Secretary Frank Knox called a press conference, explaining that the entire incident was a false alarm. The day after Knox's comments, Army statements emerged that reflected General George C. Marshall's speculations that the incident could have been caused by enemy agents who used commercial aircraft in psychological warfare to cause panic. Secretary Henry L. Simmons, however, said in an interview that the military observed nearly 15 "planes" moving at different altitudes. Therefore, the military considered them to be Japanese reconnaissance vehicles.
After the war, the Japanese government announced that it did not fly over Los Angeles during the war. In 1983, the United States Air Force History Office stated that the available evidence in the case indicated the flight of meteorological balloons. ATTENTION. They allegedly not only caused panic in the US army, but also survived the artillery shelling of American guns.
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Here one cannot fail to mention the photograph published in the Los Angeles Times on February 26, 1942. Many ufologists say that the photograph clearly shows military spotlights focused on an alien spacecraft. While there is no reason to doubt its authenticity, keep in mind that the photo itself has been heavily altered by retouching the photos before publication. In those days it was a common graphic practice to improve contrast in black and white photographs.
As a result of these events, several buildings and vehicles were damaged by missile shrapnel.
Could the events in Los Angeles be the work of an alien civilization trying to connect with humans? If we make a rational decision, it is worth citing the fact that the remains of these alleged balloons or civilian aircraft, which for several hours avoided 14,000 US Army missiles, have never been found. Apparently, they escaped the shelling and completely disappeared from the face of the Earth.
In this whole story, of course, there is a second bottom, but reaching it after so many years may be an unattainable goal. The available reports of those events are often contradictory, and the fact that they were accompanied by a fear of war definitely exaggerated the imagination of the people. However, if a Japanese fighter squadron, a meteorological balloon, or a vehicle from another civilization did not fly over Los Angeles, what caused such a massive panic?
